System of assigning domain names (dns) providing access to databases

ABSTRACT

Which allows the Internet address (IP) assigned to a destination equipment to be obtained, starting from its identification name, such as is carried out conventionally with the DNS protocol, and which also allows different information to be obtained on the destination equipment starting from its identification name, as for example can be information contained in databases of mobile telephony networks or in a database belonging to a data network.  
     For which it comprises a request administration means ( 4 ) which is connected to a means of analysis of at least one parameter of the DNS protocol ( 5 ) and at least one database message composition/reception module ( 9 ) that is connected to at least one external database ( 10, 10   a ) and also including means ( 7 ) of analysis of the answer of the at least one external database and of an internal database to deliver the information requested by using the DNS protocol.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The invention relates to a domain naming system (DNS) the objectof which is to enable access to external databases, to obtain any typeof information regarding a destination equipment starting from anidentification name of said destination equipment, and all thisindependently of being able also to obtain the Internet (IP) addressassigned to a destination equipment, starting from the identificationname of said destination equipment, such as is carried out presentlywith conventional systems (DNS).

[0002] Thus for example the system (DNS) of the invention allows accessto databases of mobile telephony networks to obtain informationregarding any subscriber, or access to databases of data networks toobtain any type of information of the destination equipment, and allstarting from an identification name of said destination equipment.

[0003] Thus access is allowed through Internet by means of a system(DNS) to different databases.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0004] At the present time, Internet is a network that has extended allover the world, as there is a growing number of users that access thesame from any part of the world, for which it is only necessary to havea terminal equipment with connection to this network. If a user that hasthis terminal equipment (requesting equipment), wants to be connectedwith another user (destination equipment), it is necessary to know thenumerical IP address of said destination equipment. However, instead ofusing the IP addresses that are more complicated to retain and manage,names are used to identify each one of the user equipments. This makesnecessary the use of a mechanism which, starting from an identificationname of the destination equipment with which it is desired tocommunicate, allows the numerical IP address to be obtained. For this astandardised protocol is employed called the domain naming system (DNS),in which the requesting equipment, before setting up a connection withthe destination equipment, queries a DNS server to obtain the IPaddress. If this server does not have the requested data, it queriesanother DNS server, or else the actual DNS server that was consulted inthe first place, returns the necessary information for querying anotherDNS server to obtain the desired information. This process can berepeated successively until the IP address is obtained, for which reasonthe requesting equipment should have the address in store of at leastone DNS server, starting from which it will be possible to obtain the IPaddress of the destination equipment with which it is desired to set upa connection.

[0005] The identification names of the terminal equipments arerepresented by labels separated by dots, so that each one of theselabels represents a domain in the network. These domains aretree-structured, so that when a DNS server is consulted, and the latterdoes not have the required information, it knows what DNS server shouldbe consulted by analysing the different domains of the name, since eachserver possesses information of an area of the network.

[0006] The information that the server queries is stored in an internaldatabase called “Master Files”, so that these databases are distributedover the different DNS servers, as each one of them has information ofan area of the network. The information that these databases containrefers to the identification names and IP addresses of each of the userterminals of the network.

[0007] The DNS protocol is formed by a header, a field to make thequery, another for the answer, another to request authorization, and alast one to include additional information. In each of these fields aseries of standardised parameters is included, among which should bementioned the parameter QNAME that is part of the query field, and whichcontains the identification name of the destination equipment of whichthe information is requested, or the parameter RDATA that contains theinformation that has been requested.

[0008] In a mobile telephony or data network, various databases existwith information regarding different client equipments of said network,and due to the advance of information technologies, there is anincreasing tendency toward combining telephony and data networks, forwhich reason it is becoming necessary to have access, in real time, toinformation of the terminal equipments of said networks to whichpresently access is only possible within the particular network inquestion. At the present time no system exists that allows access todifferent databases in order for example to be able to acquireinformation, through Internet, of a subscriber of a mobile telephonynetwork or of a data network.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0009] To overcome the aforementioned drawbacks, the invention hasdeveloped a new DNS system that allows access to be made to externaldatabases.

[0010] This system is the most suitable, since the DNS protocol iswidely used in Internet, and given its great extension, is wellimplanted, apart from being very lightweight, which implies that theburden on the network is low.

[0011] For this the system of the invention, the same as in conventionalDNS systems, comprises query reception and answer transmission meansthat are the means with which the connection to Internet is made, andwhich also serve for receiving the query relative to the identificationname of the destination equipment and sending the answer over thenetwork, apart from supervising the connection with the requestingequipment that makes the query.

[0012] It further comprises means of data analysis of the DNS query thatserve to analyse the query at protocol level checking that the query hasthe appropriate format and sends the information to a requestadministration means in which the different parameters of the queriesare analysed and it is verified that the information is present in aninternal database (Master Files) to which it has access.

[0013] Therefore the means of composing DNS messages serve to composethe DNS message to be sent, to provide an answer to the requestingequipment that made the query, and all this starting from theinformation provided by the means of data analysis of the DNS queries tothe request administration means and that obtained by these means fromthe database.

[0014] The innovation of the invention is determined by the fact that itis characterised in that the request administration means are connectedto a means of analysis of at least one parameter of the DNS protocol andto at least one module for composition/reception of database messagesthat is connected to at least one external database to detect, by meansof the means of analysis of at least one parameter of the DNS protocol,queries to external databases and to obtain different items ofinformation starting from the identification name of the destinationequipment. The request administration means are also connected to meansof analysis of the answer of the at least one external database and ofthe internal database depending on the database which has been accessed,in order to deliver the information requested to the means of DNSmessage composition and to send the information obtained from thedestination equipment to the requesting equipment.

[0015] The parameter of the DNS protocol that is analysed pertains tothe field dedicated to information requests. In this parameterinformation is also added regarding what database access is desired, andalso in this same parameter information is included regarding thedestination equipment on which information is requested, and the dataitem that it is desired to obtain on it.

[0016] In an embodiment of the invention the at least one DNS parameteranalysed also includes information regarding a password (access key) tothe information, so that after its verification access is allowed tothis information. This verification is carried out in the requestadministration means.

[0017] In the preferred embodiment of the invention, the at least oneparameter to analyse, is determined by the parameter that conventionallycontains the identification name of the destination equipment of the DNSprotocol, which parameter is known as (QNAME) such as was commented inthe previous section.

[0018] In an embodiment of the invention, the external database is of amobile telephony network, so that information can be obtained regardingthe subscribers to said network, like for example the mobile subscribertelephone number (MSISDN).

[0019] In another embodiment of the invention, the external database isof a data network, for obtaining any other type of data on a destinationequipment.

[0020] Therefore, the described structure of the invention, offers thegreat advantage that by means of the DNS protocol information can beobtained on other users of other networks, even though they are notusers of the Internet network.

[0021] The invention also offers the innovation that the IP address canvary in a dynamic way and randomly as a function of the differentconnections of the destination equipment, and consequently it does nothave to be a fixed address such as occurs in conventional DNS systems,but rather each time that the destination equipment makes aconnection/disconnection, a new IP address is assigned to it that isstored in the external database.

[0022] The databases can be relational, in which the information is aplanar structure in which a relationship exists between columns androws, and equally the database can be a hierarchical database in whichthe information is structured by levels.

[0023] In the first case, i.e. in that in which the database isrelational, at least one interface has been foreseen for externaldatabases that are connected to at least one module forcomposition/reception of database messages, to allow querying this typeof databases.

[0024] In the case in which the database is hierarchical, the structuredescribed previously is used, i.e. the external database interface isnot included.

[0025] The at least one interface of external relational databases isdetermined by APIs (Application Program Interfaces) of those usedconventionally to serve as the link for communication between twonon-compatible procedures, so that they allow communication to beestablished between these.

[0026] The invention comprises the possibility of including a pluralityof modules for composition/reception of database messages and aplurality of external databases, to allow any information to be obtainedon a destination equipment starting from its identification name.

[0027] Next, to permit a better understanding of this descriptivespecification and being an integral part thereof, a series of figures isattached wherein by way of illustration and not restrictively the objectof the invention has been represented.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0028]FIG. 1. Shows a functional block diagram of a possible example ofembodiment of the system of the invention for access to externalrelational databases.

[0029]FIG. 2. Shows another example of embodiment of the invention inwhich the DNS system can access different external hierarchicaldatabases.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

[0030] A description is provided below of the invention based on thepreviously commented figures.

[0031] In FIG. 1 a possible example of embodiment is shown in which theDNS system is included inside the dashed lines, and which has a modulefor query reception and answer transmission 1 by means of which theconnection is made to the Internet network 2, to allow a requestingequipment to obtain information on a destination equipment (notrepresented in the figure), starting from the identification name of thelatter and by means of the DNS system.

[0032] For this, module 1 serves to receive the query and to send theanswer over the Internet network 2, at the same time as it serves forsupervising the connection with the requesting equipment that makes thequery.

[0033] Thus, when a requesting equipment wants to obtain informationregarding a destination equipment, it is connected through the Internetnetwork 2 with module 1 by means of which the connection is set up withthe requesting equipment.

[0034] Module 1 is connected to a DNS query data analysis module 3 thatserves for analysing the queries made by the requesting equipment,checking the header of the DNS protocol query, verifying whether thequery is of the appropriate type, and analysing what class it belongs to(in general, Internet), passing the result of the analysis carried outto a request administration module 4 that obtains the necessaryinformation and delivers it to a QNAME parameter analysis module 5,which analyses said parameter. This parameter is used conventionally inthe DNS protocol to send the identification name of the destinationequipment, such as was commented in the section on background of theinvention. The QNAME parameter is also represented by a series of labelsseparated by dots, to allow also the identification of different domainsor areas in the Internet network 2 which in the specific case of theexample of embodiment serves to identify the network domain wherein theDNS server or system is located.

[0035] In the system of the invention, also in the QNAME parameterinformation is included relative to the destination equipment on whichinformation is requested, the database from which this information isobtained and the information required on said destination equipment, sothat module 5 analyses all this information and the result is passed byit to the request administration module 4 that checks the internaldatabase 6 (Master Files).

[0036] Also the request administration module 4 is connected to a modulefor database message composition/reception 9 that in the example ofembodiment of FIG. 1, is connected to a database interface 11 to allowaccess to external relational databases 10 as is described below.

[0037] In the case in which the requested information is not stored inthe internal database 6, module 5 informs the request administrationmodule 4 of the external database 10 that it should access, so that saidmodule 4 accesses the database message composition/reception module 9 bymeans of which the query is composed in the pertinent protocol, i.e. itcarries out the transformation of the DNS protocol to the protocol usedby the external relational database 10 that it is desired to access,this operation being carried out through a database interface 11, andthe required information being received in the interface 11 thatdelivers it to the database message composition/reception module 9 whichdelivers the information to the request administration module 4.

[0038] In any one of the cases described, when the requestadministration module 4 has the requested information, it sends it to adatabase answer analysis module 7, which provides it with the necessaryinformation to compose the answer, so that the request administrationmodule 4, once all the information has been collected to compose theanswer and that which it receives also from the DNS query data analysismodule 3, delivers all this information to a DNS message compositionmodule 8 that generates the message in the DNS protocol based on theinformation, sending it to the module for DNS query reception and answertransmission 1 by means of which the information is sent over theInternet network 2 to the requesting equipment.

[0039] In an embodiment of the invention, also in the QNAME parameterinformation is included regarding a password (access key), which withinthe process described is analysed by the request administration module 4which generates the information to deny access to the requiredinformation in a manner equivalent to that commented for the case inwhich access is allowed to this information according to the descriptionprovided above.

[0040] Thus, for example, when a requesting equipment wishes to obtaininformation on a destination equipment, in the former the correspondingprogram is booted to carry out a DNS query. This query is passed throughthe different DNS servers until it arrives at the server which knows theanswer. All this in a conventional manner.

[0041] When the query has been received by the server, its module forDNS query reception and answer transmission 1 supervises the connectionwith the requesting equipment in the manner already described.

[0042] At this stage it is necessary to point out that the server of theinvention does not carry out queries to other servers, since when accessis made to it, it is because it is desired to obtain a particular itemof information and therefore it is the one that has the requestedinformation.

[0043] Subsequently the DNS query data analysis module 3 checks that theDNS format is correct, and verifies the value that all the parameters ofthe query have except the QNAME parameter. The information obtained issent to the request administration module 4 that delivers theinformation to the QNAME parameter analysis module 5 which obtains theinformation regarding the destination equipment on which it is desiredto obtain information, as well as the information that is desired toobtain on the latter, the database to which access should be made tosearch for said data item and the necessary password to gain access tothe information of the requested destination equipment. All thisinformation passes again to the request administration module 4 forprocessing by the latter.

[0044] The request administration module 4, with the informationobtained from the module 5 checks if the password is correct, queriesthe internal database 6 to check if it can give an answer directly, andin the event of not being able to give said answer it checks to whichdatabase 10 it should send the query, the process of obtaining therequested information being carried out in the manner already described.

[0045] When the request administration module receives the requesteddata on the destination equipment, the information is passed to thedatabase answer analysis module 7 for the latter to define what is to beput in the answer field of the DNS protocol. Thus, for example, itdefines what is to be put in the RDATA parameter of the answer field ofthe DNS protocol. This field passes again to the request administrationmodule 4 which, together with the information it received from the DNSquery analysis module 3 passes all the information necessary for the DNSmessage composition module 8 to compose the answer in DNS protocolformat which is sent via the DNS query reception and answer transmissionmodule 1 which serves to send it, over the Internet network 2 to therequesting equipment.

[0046] In FIG. 2 an example of embodiment of the invention is shownequivalent to that described, but with the difference that in this casethe external database is a hierarchical database 10 a, in which caseincorporation of the database interface 11 is not necessary, since thedatabase message composition/reception module 9 has direct accessthereto. Also in this example of embodiment, different databases 10 ahave been shown for which different database messagecomposition/reception modules 9 are included, each one of which carriesout the pertinent translation to the selected protocol, so thatdepending on what this is, the request administration module 4 selectsone or another of the database message composition/reception modules 9,so that through the latter access is obtained to the correspondinghierarchical database 10 a. Operation is identical to that described,with the exception mentioned.

[0047] Therefore, by means of the description made it is easilyunderstood that an Internet user, making use of the DNS protocol, canaccess a mobile telephony network, in which case he will access, forexample the database of the GSM network, to obtain his telephone numberfor example, and equally he can access an external database 10 or 10 abelonging to any data network to obtain any type of informationregarding a destination equipment, and all this starting from theidentification name of said destination equipment, that conventionallyis used to obtain the IP address of the latter by means of a DNS system.

1. Domain naming system (DNS) for access to databases, which allows arequesting equipment to obtain the Internet (IP) address, assigned to adestination equipment, starting from an identification name of saiddestination equipment, for which it comprises query reception and answertransmission means (1) through which it is connected to the Internetnetwork (2), DNS query data analysis means (3), DNS message compositionmeans (8), request administration means (4) and an internal database (6)(Master Files); it is characterised in that the request administrationmeans (4) are connected to means of analysis of at least one parameterof the DNS protocol (5), and to at least one database messagecomposition/reception module (9), that is connected to at least oneexternal database (10, 10 a) to detect, by means of the means ofanalysis of at least one parameter of the DNS protocol (5), queries toexternal databases (10, 10 a) and to obtain different information on thedestination equipment starting from the identification name of saiddestination equipment; the request administration means (4) being alsoconnected with means (7) of analysis of the answer from the at least oneexternal database (10, 10 a) and from the internal database (6), todeliver the information requested to the DNS message composition means(8) and to send the obtained information on the destination equipment tothe requesting equipment over the Internet network (2).
 2. Domain namingsystem (DNS) for access to databases, according to claim 1,characterised in that the at least one DNS parameter analysed to detectwhat database to access, also includes information regarding thedestination equipment on which one requests information and to the itemof data that it is desired to obtain on the latter.
 3. Domain namingsystem (DNS) for access to databases, according to claim 1,characterised in that the DNS parameter analysed to detect what databaseto access, also includes information regarding a password to theinformation, in order to, after verification thereof, allow access tosaid information.
 4. Domain naming system (DNS) for access to databases,according to claim 2, characterised in that the normalised DNS parameteris the parameter that conventionally contains the identification name ofthe destination equipment of the DNS protocol (QNAME).
 5. Domain namingsystem (DNS) for access to databases, according to claim 1,characterised in that the external database is of a mobile telephonynetwork in order to be able to obtain information regarding thesubscribers of said network.
 6. Domain naming system (DNS) for access todatabases, according to claim 1, characterised in that the externaldatabase is of a data network.
 7. Domain naming system (DNS) for accessto databases, according to claim 5, characterised in that the subscribertelephone number (MSISDN) is obtained.
 8. Domain naming system (DNS) foraccess to databases, according to claim 1, characterised in that the IPaddress varies in a dynamic way and randomly as a function of thedifferent connections/disconnections of the destination equipment. 9.Domain naming system (DNS) for access to databases, according to claim1, characterised in that at least one database interface (11) has beenforeseen which is connected to at least one database messagecomposition/reception module (9) for access to external relationaldatabases (10).
 10. Domain naming system (DNS) for access to databases,according to claim 9, characterised in that the at least one databaseinterface (11) is determined by APIs (Application Program Interfaces).11. Domain naming system (DNS) for access to databases, according toclaim 1, characterised in that a plurality of composition/receptionmodules of database messages (9) and a plurality of external databases(10, 10 a) have been foreseen.